4.2.13

CARTER WINS THE FIGHT

Ali Carter, the new Betfair German Masters champion, is one of snooker’s fighters.
And he’s had to be.

He’s
had to fight just to keep his career going in the face of a troubling medical
condition which has affected him both physically and mentally.

Last
season, Carter threatened to retire. This was not a kneejerk reaction to losing
a match but the accumulation of years of struggle with Crohn’s disease. He had
another operation recently in an attempt to control it.

He
didn’t retire but snooker could not always be his priority. This is why his run
to last year’s World Championship final was so impressive as it came in the
face of much bigger problems than potting balls.

He
said he hadn’t practised much for Berlin. He arrived in Germany only to find
his cue hadn’t been put on the flight. He was reunited with it only an hour
before his first match and found himself 3-1 down to Fraser Patrick.

However,
Carter said the sudden realisation that he might not have been able to play at
all, or at least only with a borrowed cue, somehow gave him a new lease of life
and he came through 5-3 before embarking on a run to the final.

He
played his best snooker of the tournament in last night’s final session. Trailing
Marco Fu 5-3 at the resumption Carter made his first century of the tournament
and then, in the next frame, promptly made another.

It
put Fu under pressure and he failed to respond. Carter won six of the evening’s
seven frames to run out 9-6. It was in some ways reminiscent of his recovery
from 5-2 down to beat Joe Swail 9-5 and win the 2009 Welsh Open, his first
ranking title.

Carter
has won three ranking titles, the same number as the world no.1, Mark Selby,
and the world no.2, Judd Trump, although he is ten years older than the latter.

He
said afterwards that he sometimes forgets how good he is as he is rarely talked
about in the front wave of tournament favourites – Selby, Trump, John Higgins
and Neil Robertson.

But
he can be very satisfied and proud of his victory last night, coming as it did
against a backdrop of difficulties most players can only speculate about.

The
final was not as dramatic as last year’s Ronnie O’Sullivan comeback against
Stephen Maguire and the atmosphere thus not quite as memorable. But only not
quite. The German fans, as they had all week, displayed huge enthusiasm. For
them, the identity of the finalists was secondary to the experience of being
there, watching live snooker.

Even
the final referee, Olivier Marteel, was given a rousing reception usually reserved
for rock stars.

I
can recommend the trip to snooker fans wherever they live. Berlin is a
fascinating, historic and welcoming city. There is much to see and do away from
the snooker.

And
the Tempodrom is a superb venue. It is widely assumed the World Championship
will go to China if it ever leaves the Crucible.

Financially
that makes perfect sense, but I suspect many players would rather it came to
Germany, where a television boom has created a snooker-loving constituency who
are already looking forward to the next time the game hits town.

18 comments:

Firstly, I’m so pleased that Snooker players are starting to get the fabulous reception from crowds that they so thoroughly deserve. The Temperdrome really does come across a fantastic venue & fair play to the crowds for coming along & supporting this event & showing the players, & officials, so much respect. This can only bode well for our game & gives the up & coming Pro’s something to aspire too. Playing in front of such wonderful audiences is a wonderful motivation for them too.

I was also pleased to see Marco Fu reminding us of what a good solid player he is. He works hard & it’s great to see him getting the right rewards hard work brings.

As we all know, Ali Carter is one of the best cueists in our game & it’s great to see him back in the winner’s circle again. That, will certainly make him feel good. Good luck to him.

Finally, something that I have noticed in the past few tournaments is that lesser ranked players are becoming a lot more comfortable playing in the pressure cauldron that the latter stages of tournaments brings. This is obviously down to playing a lot more in these conditions & getting used to playing while ‘under it’. Our game really is in good shape at the moment & how wonderful that is to see.

To put the Wch ship on a rotating schedule would make more sense.Sheffield every 2nd year, thenBerlin and Beijing and eventuallyChina every 2nd year. Would probably make sense in eight years time with a new crop of chinese players making an impact to keep chinese spectators ontheir toes.

My utmost admiration goes to Ali Carter for not retiring 14 months ago. His determination helped him to carry on playing and now he's a winner again. And what a great place to win. The German audience is always very respectful and it makes me quite emotional for all the adulation shown for this wonderful game.

Carter should believe he's as good as anyone out there and there's nothing stopping him going on to win the World Title.

I absolutely endorse your comments regarding the Tempodrom and the World Championship. Notwithstanding that for reasons of tradition, the event is never likely to leave The Crucible, the Tempodrom would be a fantastic venue - probably far superior than anything China could offer, atmospherewise.

So much of the credit for German enthusiasm for Snooker has to be given to Eurosport, and in particular to Rolf Kolb, who's commentary and enthusiasm for the game is second to none.

It would be interesting for Eurosport Germany to run some sort of "reality TV" series to find the first German Snooker star. To do so would really cement the game in the hearts of the German population.

The game is poorer for Ronnie's absence. The reality is that we will never see the game played better that the way he plays. Fact.Whilst there remains a possibility of his involvement then it's only reasonable that his name will appear.

The thing is, the comments here do reflect the mainstream media coverage in the UK: for about 15 years it has all been about Ronnie. At the weekend the papers and popular websites had lots of coverage of Ronnie getting engaged to some actress, but barely a mention of the German Masters (even though it was on TV in 80+ countries and probably attracted 20-25,000 spectators across the 5 days).

FWIW I and most snooker fans want to see Ronnie defend his title but I do mean defend (i.e. turn up and play at his mesmerising best, not just turn up). I think the key is whether Ronnie is spending any time with Dr Steve Peters?